Monitor and protect your online reputation

As your ideal customer investigates you, she will find reviews that other customers have posted. Some may be positive and some may be negative. You have to know what people are saying.

If the reviews are positive, great. Your ideal customer will probably call. If the reviews are negative, she will probably call someone else. In that case, you have a problem. Not only did your customer service go wrong, but the victim was so irate she went online and wrote a negative review.

You need to monitor your reputation—to know when someone is saying something good and more importantly, when someone is saying something bad. Google has a free service that lets you monitor your reputation by alerting you when someone mentions your name online. This service is called Google Alerts. You should start using Google Alerts today. I do.

You can visit http://Google.com/alerts and create an account. I used my existing Gmail account when creating Google Alerts.

For example, I have Google Alerts for my name, Mark Anthony Germanos. I programmed Google Alerts to send me an e-mail once a day listing any web pages that mention my name. An alert could be something positive, like “Mark Anthony Germanos helped me understand Facebook as a business tool this morning,” or it could be something negative, like “Mark Anthony Germanos drives like a monster.” Regardless, I want to know. So should you.

You can also monitor your company name, your product name, your industry, or your targeted keywords. I have set Google Alerts on attract your ideal customer, ideal customer, sacramento SEO, mark anthony germanos, and yourseowizard. The lowercase is intentional. Whenever someone publishes something online and uses one of these phrases, I receive a Google Alert.

Perhaps you run an assisted-living facility in Sacramento. You could create an Alert for assisted living sacramento or sacramento assisted living.
Setting up Google Alerts is quick and easy. Here are the steps:

Type in a Search Query. This is the key phrase that you are targeting. This could also be your name, company name, or product name.

Choose a Result type. I always choose “Everything.”

Choose “How often” you want to receive Alerts. You can vary from once a week to As-it-happens.

The more important the key phrase is to your business, the more often you would probably want the Alerts. This could be vital, breaking news you have to know promptly. Be careful. This could flood your e-mail inbox if you choose a popular key phrase and set Alerts to send “As-it-happens.” For example, suppose you work for a public corporation. Any news about your company is something you are expected to know. You never know when a customer will call and say, “Did you hear about…? How will it affect me?” A well-planned Google Alert can prepare you for those kinds of situations.

Choose “How many” by selecting either “Only the best results” or “All results.”

Choose where Google should deliver the Alerts. In the “Deliver to:” pop-up, choose either your e-mail address or a Feed. A Feed reader functions like a Table of Contents. The reader shows you all the articles from multiple sources that meet your interest. Keep it simple. Send the Alerts to your e-mail address.

Click the “Create Alert” button.

Follow these steps to create another Alert.

You need to know when someone is saying something good about you, and more importantly, when someone is saying something bad. Your reputation is too valuable to neglect. Google Alerts is a free solution to make that happen.

Case study: Google Alert

A competitor once published a list of five local scammers. The list included me. My Google Alert for sacramento seo cited his website…

This person labeled me a scammer. A computer guy posing as an Internet marketing guy? Surely a fraud is occurring, he must have felt. The two professions are not compatible.

Suppose this happened to you. Suppose someone recklessly assaulted your reputation. They may be wrong. However, the nonsense they posted online impacts your company’s morale and reputation. You have to know if someone is trying to tarnish your reputation. I will discuss a wise response in my next case study (below).

Find out how I responded, and the result. Excerpt from Attract Your Ideal Customer: A Workbook for Making More Money.

Monitor and protect your online reputation

As your ideal customer investigates you, she will find reviews that other customers have posted. Some may be positive and some may be negative. You have to know what people are saying.

If the reviews are positive, great. Your ideal customer will probably call. If the reviews are negative, she will probably call someone else. In that case, you have a problem. Not only did your customer service go wrong, but the victim was so irate she went online and wrote a negative review.

You need to monitor your reputation—to know when someone is saying something good and more importantly, when someone is saying something bad. Google has a free service that lets you monitor your reputation by alerting you when someone mentions your name online. This service is called Google Alerts. You should start using Google Alerts today. I do.

You can visit http://Google.com/alerts and create an account. I used my existing Gmail account when creating Google Alerts.

For example, I have Google Alerts for my name, Mark Anthony Germanos. I programmed Google Alerts to send me an e-mail once a day listing any web pages that mention my name. An alert could be something positive, like “Mark Anthony Germanos helped me understand Facebook as a business tool this morning,” or it could be something negative, like “Mark Anthony Germanos drives like a monster.” Regardless, I want to know. So should you.

You can also monitor your company name, your product name, your industry, or your targeted keywords. I have set Google Alerts on attract your ideal customer, ideal customer, sacramento SEO, mark anthony germanos, and yourseowizard. The lowercase is intentional. Whenever someone publishes something online and uses one of these phrases, I receive a Google Alert.

Perhaps you run an assisted-living facility in Sacramento. You could create an Alert for assisted living sacramento or sacramento assisted living.
Setting up Google Alerts is quick and easy. Here are the steps:

Type in a Search Query. This is the key phrase that you are targeting. This could also be your name, company name, or product name.

Choose a Result type. I always choose “Everything.”

Choose “How often” you want to receive Alerts. You can vary from once a week to As-it-happens.

The more important the key phrase is to your business, the more often you would probably want the Alerts. This could be vital, breaking news you have to know promptly. Be careful. This could flood your e-mail inbox if you choose a popular key phrase and set Alerts to send “As-it-happens.” For example, suppose you work for a public corporation. Any news about your company is something you are expected to know. You never know when a customer will call and say, “Did you hear about…? How will it affect me?” A well-planned Google Alert can prepare you for those kinds of situations.

Choose “How many” by selecting either “Only the best results” or “All results.”

Choose where Google should deliver the Alerts. In the “Deliver to:” pop-up, choose either your e-mail address or a Feed. A Feed reader functions like a Table of Contents. The reader shows you all the articles from multiple sources that meet your interest. Keep it simple. Send the Alerts to your e-mail address.

Click the “Create Alert” button.

Follow these steps to create another Alert.

You need to know when someone is saying something good about you, and more importantly, when someone is saying something bad. Your reputation is too valuable to neglect. Google Alerts is a free solution to make that happen.

Case study: Google Alert

A competitor once published a list of five local scammers. The list included me. My Google Alert for sacramento seo cited his website…

This person labeled me a scammer. A computer guy posing as an Internet marketing guy? Surely a fraud is occurring, he must have felt. The two professions are not compatible.

Suppose this happened to you. Suppose someone recklessly assaulted your reputation. They may be wrong. However, the nonsense they posted online impacts your company’s morale and reputation. You have to know if someone is trying to tarnish your reputation. I will discuss a wise response in my next case study (below).

Find out how I responded, and the result. Excerpt from Attract Your Ideal Customer: A Workbook for Making More Money.

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